Posted by
Steve on Friday, March 06, 2009 10:57:51 AM
On the way to work on Thursday, I listened to Mike Gallagher. He played a clip of a TV appearance he had with a Democrat operative. I do not remember the name of the operative and it is not important. But, she was intent to make the point that Rush Limbaugh was the head of the Republican Party and that he was the Warden.
Mike Gallagher tried to dissuade her of her misguided idea to no avail. She had been programmed to say those two things and she repeated them over and over. Her comments were said in a very dark fashion. Mike Gallagher was laughing and having a good time. Her idea that Republicans were somehow in “prison” was not going to sell with someone like Mike Gallagher as the person you are talking to. He is too happy and friendly.
But, in going with her theme of the Republicans being in “prison” and Rush Limbaugh being the Warden, who else tells his “prisoners” what they need to do to break free. The Republicans are in bondage to Democrat socialist agenda items. Every day Rush Limbaugh tells his audience what they need to do to break free of socialism.
The Democrat operative tried to say that the Republicans are where they are because of Rush Limbaugh. That could not be farther from the truth. The Republicans are where they are politically because they have not been listening to Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt and the other conservative talk show hosts. I might make a correction to that last statement. They might have been listening, but they did not act upon the information they were given in all those radio talk shows. Had they listened, the Republican Party would have a majority in the House and Senate and there would be a Republican President in the White House. I am not saying that everything that the talk show hosts say is perfect and should be implemented, but most of it should.
What the Republicans need to do is get the best Republican thinkers together and have them come up with something like the Contract with America that Newt Gingrich did in 1994. A new Contract with America will not work. It worked once and it will probably not work twice. But, having all Republicans working from the same playbook would be a real change. The one thing you can say about the Republican Party is that they do not have a common playbook. That is why the Contract with America worked so well. Everyone was on the same page in their discussions and the country was in total shock that Republicans actually agreed on something for a change. Democrats always work as a top down authoritarian party. All Democrats are given their playbook and are expected to follow it to the letter. Republicans on the other hand do not give anyone marching orders and this has caused mass confusion at times.
These best thinkers should include ALL Republican thinkers, including the leading talk show hosts. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage are the leading thinkers in talk radio. They should assist in developing any Republican playbook that would have a chance at succeeding. They talk to the public every day and know what the public wants and needs. They are not isolated up in the ivory towers in Washington, D.C. So often we think that only people in Washington, D.C. can come up with ideas. That is not true. When I worked for the federal government, the worst ideas came from Washington, because Washington had to make rules for the whole country. Rules that came from our state were good because they were local. That works the same for things that will work for the country. Washington based thinkers have a Washington based world view. These thinkers need to have various views from the country, not just Washington.
The Republicans can win again as early as 2010. But, we have to get our act together. We have to find good candidates and we have to fund their campaigns. We need a playbook that everyone can agree are the core issues that all can support. Then hammer the Democrats on those core issues until they cannot stand it. When we retake the House and Senate, we need to remember what got us there. We need to maintain fiscal discipline. We cannot repeat the excesses of the past 20 years. That will allow us to have the majority as far as the eye can see. If we lose sight of what we want to accomplish, then we will fall out of power again. Just remember what our lack of focus brought us in 2006 and 2008, nuf said.